Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy
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Welcome to the Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy
The Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy is an interdisciplinary research and education initiative at the University of California, Santa Barbara that aims to expand public understanding and discussion of important issues facing working people. In cooperation with the Department of History, the Center administers an undergraduate minor in Labor Studies and a graduate-level Colloquium in Work, Labor and Political Economy. The Center also hosts conferences and workshops that contribute to an understanding, of the issues and ideas, past and present, illuminating the character of American capitalism and the working class that sustains it. The Center is part of the All-UC Miguel Contreras Labor Program.
Nelson Lichtenstein awarded 2012 Sol Stetin Award for Labor History. Read his acceptance speech here.
Alice O'Connor in a Salon Op-Ed
- How to make Occupy catch on
Were history a guide to today's politics, progressives would be redoubling their efforts to turn the still-unraveling crisis of capitalism into an opportunity for system-changing reform. Certainly they would be doing everything within their power to combat the logic of austerity and entitlement-slashing that has crystalized into a new Washington "consensus," and instead to shape the debate around issues of employment, inequality, the erosion of the safety net, and the unprecedented concentrations of wealth and economic power that have survived the Great Recession intact. But they would also move to engage the debate at a deeper level: in terms of what a just, equitable and socially as well as financially productive economy looks like and what roles the state and the market should play in bringing it about.
Read the full article here.
Nelson Lichtenstein in New Labor Forum
- Class Unconsciousness: Stop using 'Middle Class' to Depict the Labor Movement
George Orwell thought the precise and purposeful deployment of
our language was the key to the kind of politics we hoped to advance. By that standard, virtually everyone—from the center to the left, from Barack Obama to Richard Trumka to the activists of Occupy Wall Street—has made a hash of the way we name the most crucial features of our society.
Read the full piece here.
Upcoming Events
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May 11th / Friday / 1:00 PM / 4041 HSSB: STEPHAN MIESCHER. History, UCSB. He talks on "Creating an American Island: The Volta Aluminum Company (VALCO) in Ghana, 1964-2000." Miescher is the co-editor of Africa After Gender (2007) and author of Making Men in Ghana (2005). His paper can be found 
June 8th / Friday / 1:00 PM / 4041 HSSB: STEPHEN CAMPBELL, History UCSB. Campbell offers a paper, "Fear Itself: Biddle's Panic, 1833-34." Derived from his dissertation, Campbell’s presentation argues that politics and psychology mattered more than economic conditions in explaining the character of this antebellum recession.
The
Colloquium in Work, Labor and Political Economy will take place at 1:00pm on designated Fridays during the Spring Quarter in HSSB 4041.
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Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy
Department of History,
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara,
CA 93106-9410.
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